


Walk Away

by KtheG



Series: Two Celestial's and a Human [7]
Category: Warrior Nun (TV)
Genre: F/F, I have healing vibes tonight, Multi, Soccer AU, Soft Girlfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KtheG/pseuds/KtheG
Summary: Beatrice and Lilith play soccer and Ava is their supportive girlfriend
Relationships: Sister Beatrice/Sister Lilith/Ava Silva
Series: Two Celestial's and a Human [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872385
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	Walk Away

**Author's Note:**

> Is all my writing cathartic for me? apparently so.

Beatrice wasn't necessarily the fastest on the team, but she had the foot skills and the strategy that allowed her to beat defenders no problem. She always knew just when to bend her run inside, knew where to pass the ball and which lines needed to be broken. Every time Ava watched, she fell a little more in love. She would cheer her girlfriends on from the sidelines (any sport with a ball was not an Ava sport, she preferred ski racing) and was content to watch Beatrice score goals while Lilith held down the back line. But anyway, Beatrice didn't always look fast compared to the defenders she would go against, but when it came down to it? Somehow Beatrice always beat her player.

So Ava was never really worried. College sports were hard and required a grind, but Ava was never really worried about her girls getting hurt from a tackle (overworked muscles? pulled, all the time) and usually the opposing teams held enough respect for Beatrice as a player after four years that they didn't play so dirty anymore; usually they tried to switch up defenders on her, but Bea always found the holes in a back line. There was a reason she was being scouted by the NWSL and held so many records for their school. She could always find a way to beat her defenders.

However, in this game? Ava had been on the edge of her seat the whole time. The opposing team had a freshman center back in, and Beatrice had smoked her so many times that Ava could _feel_ the frustration from her place in the stands. Bea already had one goal under her belt, and they were nearing the 75th minute, which is when Beatrice would be pulled out of this game since it was only preseason (no need to risk injury when you're team is winning 3-1).

So to say Ava was a little nervous for her girlfriend was an understatement. This was one of the times when she was frustrated that she couldn't be on the field with her girls, looking out for them. But she trusted Lilith should anything go wrong. She knew that Lilith would take care of Bea until they could all be together. That said, it didn't make it any easier to watch Beatrice take hit after hit, getting two hands shoved into her back on corner kicks ("HEY WATCH IT REF, THAT'S ILLEGAL!") or watching the other team go after Beatrice's ankles in an attempt at slowing her down.

But as the game went on and the other team got more frustrated? Ava became more worried. Everybody knows that the last 15 minutes of the game are the most brutal, the most intense. So when it happened, it almost seemed like slow motion. Beatrice was posted up against her defender, back to goal, ball at her feet, ready to turn or make a pass. She planted her right foot, faked with her left, and then used the outside of her left foot to turn the defender. What she didn't see, that Ava did, was the defender's foot coming between her legs, swiping for the ball. Ava watched as Beatrice got her foot stepped on as she went to turn, watched as if she could see the unnatural angle her knee bent at before she collapsed to the ground, watched as Beatrice folded to the ground, clutching her right knee. The whistle blew, but it sounded like it was in the distance, and all Ava could focus on was Beatrice. She saw Lilith running up the pitch at a dead sprint, falling to the ground beside their girlfriend, hands on her shoulders, trying to get Beatrice to uncurl from the fetal position she had ended up in.

The trainers ran onto the field, and vaguely, Ava was aware of the yellow card being handed out to the other girl. She could spot the ACL test from a mile away, and while she wasn't close enough to see Beatrice's face, she could see the way her knee moved, knew that at least the ACL had torn, if not more. Lilith turned from her spot at Bea's side to find Ava in the crowd and shook her head. It wasn't going to be good.

Ava knew how devastated Beatrice would be. It was their Senior Year. They were set to graduate, the soccer team was rumored to be good enough to make it to NC's this year, and a torn ACL would blow that all to Hell. A 6 month recovery time at best was not enough time for Beatrice to come back for the rest of the season. There was no way for Beatrice to get this back, but Ava wasn't going to let her give up on her dream of going pro. They could do it, together, the three of them. It would be hardest for Lilith, to know that she can still play, still do what she loves while her girlfriend can't. Ava was determined to not let them fight over this. They worked too hard to get where they are for their relationship to be broken up by a simple torn ACL.

Luckily, the school was invested in Beatrice, and so surgery was scheduled for the following Tuesday, meaning Beatrice wouldn't even have to wait four days to get started on recovering. Unfortunately, Ava knew how painful it would be. A torn ACL was no laughing matter (except when Beatrice had come out of surgery high on painkillers and couldn't stop giggling to save her life) and Ava knew the next few months would be emotionally difficult. Ava and Lilith would hold Bea every night, force her into the middle so she didn't move too much in her sleep, would hold her tight and wipe away her tears. They couldn't go with Bea to every PT appointment (they were still college students after all) but they were always there to hold her at the end of the day.

They celebrated every small victory as if it was the greatest accomplishment to mankind. The day Bea got 90 degrees mobility was monumental; it meant she could start some of the more intense rehab, work towards walking with weight faster. Lilith was always there to remind her to not rush things, to remind Beatrice that rushing recovery would lead to greater setback. Ava was there to keep Beatrice on track, to keep her doing her exercises at home.

The day Beatrice could walk without crutches was arguable one of the best days of her life. It meant her body was almost hers again. She didn't need Ava and Lilith to hover around her anymore (she had snapped at them one too many times for their worrying, and they had almost gone to bed angry, but she's glad that she has them.) She could do squats in the weight room with the rest of her team again, even if it was just body weight. A few more weeks and she would be running in the Alter-G, learning what it would feel like to run on a repaired joint. (It was so painful, everyday. She would come home from a weight session or PT and be in tears, but Ava was always there with ice and the stimulation. Lilith would carry her piggy back around the house as they got ready for bed, and would always volunteer to hold Beatrice in the shower if she felt too tired.)

So when she could run on ground again? Beatrice was ecstatic. The team was well into post-season now. They had in fact made it to NC's, and Beatrice was cheering them on from the sidelines, happy to support her girlfriend, but a little disappointed that she couldn't be there with them. But she learned from Ava how to appreciate the game as a spectator.

"I think I could walk away." she said one night, as they were driving home from the school after picking up Lilith from the travel trip. Ava and Lilith turned to look at her, shock on their faces.

"I think I could walk away and be happy. These past few months have been really hard, but they've also shown me that I can live a life without soccer. I'm happy in school, I like what I do, and I think there are a lot of opportunities for me to still be involved. I could coach a youth team, be a graduate assistant, get my PhD like we talked about. I think I could be happy."

Lilith and Ava held her that night after they talked about their futures. Knew that this was something Beatrice had struggled with the most since the injury happened. "If that's what you really want, Bea. You know we support everything you do." Lilith had no plans to go pro after college, looking at grad schools and taking the GRE in the spring. Ava had had several interviews with firms that would let her work from anywhere. They had the rest of their lives to be boring adults, but to know that Beatrice would be okay walking away? Kind of shocking. She had always been so driven.

But Beatrice kept going to PT, determined to get back into game shape before she made any concrete decisions. She didn't want to just get back to walking and jogging. She wanted to be back to where she was when she got hurt. Ava could find her and Lilith doing sprints in the park by their house at weird hours of the day and she would occasionally join them (what? Cardio is good for everybody, sue her) but the minute they pulled out the ball to play, she backed out, content to watch from the sidelines.

When the draft came up, Beatrice decided to go for it. To push herself to her limits, to try and play at least one year in the league. And Lilith and Ava would be right by her side the whole time


End file.
